Movie Legends 6 pack, Gold Optimus, Animated interview, Animated blog

There's a new listing at ToysRUs.com. It's for a Movie Legends 6-pack that includes Optimus, Jazz, Bumblebee, Megatron, Barricade, and Starscream. It's avilable for preorder for $20.

There's also an odd web site devoted to the luck draw gold masterpeice Optimus Prime. This appears to be the first stage of this new tf web page. Head over to www.goldoptimusprime.com to check it out.

There's also an interview with Matt Youngberg Supervising Director of Transformers Animaited at IGN.com.

BLOG: The more I read about Animated the more hopful I become. For all of you who at present are dispising Animated, please stop and think rationally about your anger at the "distruction" of your beloved Transformers. How many of you who presently hate Animated also hated the Movie when all you knew of it was that they ruined the robot modes?

Admittedly I, like many others, had reservations about the movie. Mine were different then many other peoples. I was worried that we would agian experience the pain of G1 type of toys. Meaning that the toys would only bear basic similarities to what we saw on screen. If that were the case, they may very well end up also not being posable enough to make collectors happy. Are the toys perfect? No. Have any of the toys from any line been perfect? No. Are the Movie toys a good enough representation to make myself and most other collectors happy? Yes. In dealing with the real world and cost of production as well as durablity issues, these toys are largly very good.

Many of you are now equally concerned about the upcomming Animated. I don't share your level of distress. I do understand it. Because, agian I am worried about how Hasbro is going to make toys look like the animation style. But, the transtion from this animation style to toy should prove easier than movie robot to toy.

I also understand that many of you are infact worried that Animated will go down as the worst tv series we've ever had bar none. I just don't think that will happen. Here's why.

1: The production staff. The Batman, Teen Titans, & TMNT are all projects the production staff have previously worked on. All in all these are/were pretty good shows.

2: Interviews. From reading the various interviews these people are taking Animated very seriously. They want this show to do well, and they want to make the fans happy.

3: Kids. This is where most of fan base's worries infact are. Some fans seem to belive that if the show is written to the standard of a 7-8yr old viewer that the show will be an instant flop because it is soooooo bad. If it were wirtten to the adult level many of us would like it would be remarkablly hard to get it on tv.

Whle R.I.D. was really bad,how many of us still watched it? How many of us still found it somehow entertaining, possiblly even mildly captivating? The truth that many of us forget from time to time is that when push comes to shove the fans are kids at heart. If we weren't we would've out grown our toy collections and stopped watching cartoons alltogether. This is the true appeal of tfs the kid inside of us. It's nice that Hasbro makes cool toys to keep us in our childhood loves. It's remarkable that if you count the Japanese series Transformers has been on the air almost every year since 1984. But, in all the incarnations, among all the changes, with all the various continuities Hasbro/Takra/Tommy/Marvel/Dreamworks & everyone else involved with the shows have appealled to our inner child. Why should Cartoon Network not do what seems to have worked for more than 20 years?

Agian, I'm not saying the show will be great or for that matter even good. But, it seems to me to be to early to say just how good (or bad) Animated will be. Be patient January is only 5 months away. And, I promise if it's as bad as many of you expect, I'll post an apology. To which, you can all mock and ridicule me in your replies. :)

Wow knightwing, you are a dreamer. Keep reaching for that star buddy. I hope you get it. I have already bought my box of tissues to cry when I see Animated. Boy...if your right, I will have NO idea what to do with them. LOL

If you saw the teaser at BotCon, you would be very excited about animated. It's likely to fall in place right behind Beast Wars and G1 as great cartoons. If all someone likes is G1, they can keep watching the DVD's because there's never going to be a G1 again. Same with Beast Wars, Unicron Trilogy, etc. I believe anyone who likes good (children's) cartoons is going to like Animated.

I think that the reason everyone is upset about Animated is because no matter how good the story is, you have to sit for a while and find out if it is or not. But general audiences will only catch a glimpse of it and instantly dismiss it as kiddy. And with such horrible designs, who can blame them? It's just too kiddy. Then the toys look kiddy. Then the franchise gets the reputation of being kiddy. Then all of the hard work that the studios put forth to make our franchise seem cool to fans and non fans alike will be for nothing. It will be back to being just a show and toyline for kids. We finally got our chance to be public about being fans of a toyline for children thanks to the movie. Animated will take it all away from us just moments after we got it. G1 was a trainwreck of a cartoon if you really step back and look at it from a non-biased point of view. So it is ok for a show to not be G1. But Animated shows signs of having the problems that made G1 a trainwreck. Shoddy animation, episodic plots, ultimate-weapon-of-the-week stories, etc. It appeals to the ADD crowd, like most shows these days. It doesn't just make the franchise look bad, it makes US look bad. The movie designs looked odd to some at first, but they still looked like giant transforming robots, which is what transformers are. Animated looks like human superheros. That is never what transformers looked like, and it never will. The movie bots may have looked like Bionicles to some, but they were still robots. Animated doesn't look like robots. They look like humans >p

I took extensive notes during the Hasbro, "future products panel" (and will get them posted with our complete Botcon report soon.)

In a room filled with a 1,000+ skeptics, (myself included) I would say 99.9% of the attendees walked out somewhere between very optimistic to extremely excited. Transformers animated will be cool. It will *not* be 100% of perfect to virtually any collector. But I will predict, this will be rated among the better - best shows of the last 5 years.

I'll tell you right now, it will blow away RID, Armada, and Energon. Personally, I'll predict it'll be better received than Cybertron. One thing I can tell you for certain, is that it will be viewed by a LOT more kids/fans than any of those series because Cartoon Network is behind it and will put it in great time slots and advertise the daylights out of it!

Although not perfect, I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say this show will be to today's generation of fans, what G1 was to many of us older collectors...

I was at Botcon and I saw the trailer & prototype pictures for TF Animated. I wasn't too sure at first and after seeing it at Botcon, i'm a bit more convinced but honestly I've got to see it for real and hold the toys first. I'll say it looks promising for now.

I kind of think going back to cell animation is a good thing, it'll be a change from what we've had the previous few years. I just say, give it a chance, watch an episode or two, buy 1 toy and then see.

By the way, if i remember correctly, Hasbro said the show will air Fall of 2008 with toys coming out at that time although in march 2008, Hasbro will do a 1 time release for 1 wave of animated toys. Someone can confirm if I remember correctly.

I'll be convinced that it isn't a disaster when I see several things.I want to see prototypes that look like robots. If I see "Spandex Prime" with a giant body and a microscopic waist then I will avoid the line like the plague. If the toy ends up looking like a Classics Starconvoy then I will check it out. Maybe Hasbro can make 2 versions of each figure...One of the biggest reservations I have is about beleivability. I want beleivable villains. If I can't take them seriously, then no writing can save them. They would be just cartoon villains that are always going to be defeated in the end. And no matter what, the villains must have motivations. They need a reason to be evil, they need something in their minds that justifies their actions but it would be nice if they weren't always sure that it did. As for the Heroes, They must have a motivation to do what they do as well. Give them a reason to care about the safety of humans. And the most important thing: there has to be wins and losses. I won't believe it if the heroes win every time.If they come across on the screen to me as being robots, I will be happy with the animation. I need to know that they are robots and not just hummans in tights. And I will puke if I see a spinning transformation. Even one. Even a quick one.Did the Botcon preview touch on any of my concerns? If so, do tell.